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Philippe Pinel

September 14, 2026 · 39 min

Show notes

Pinel’s work is considered the precursor to psychiatry. In the late 18th century, he overhauled the asylum system of Paris with his groundbreaking ideas about mental health.

Research:

  • Bicêtre Hospital. https://hopital-bicetre.aphp.fr/lhopital 
  • Boullerne, A.I., et al. “The origins and early history of neurochemistry and its societies.” Journal of Neurochemistry. 152: 8-28. 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/jnc.14839  
  • Chambers, William. “Chambers' Edinburgh journal.” Vol. 11-132. 1849. London. William Orr. https://archive.org/details/chambersedinburg1112cham/page/n179/mode/2up 
  • Charland, Louis C. 2018. “Lost in Myth, Lost in Translation: Philippe Pinel’s 1809 Medico-Philosophical Treatise on Mental Alienation.” International Journal of Mental Health 47 (3): 245–49. doi:10.1080/00207411.2018.1483053. 
  • Gallaher, John G. and Paul Stewart. “Fall of Robespierre.” EBSCO. 2023. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/fall-robespierre 
  • Hewitt, Jessie. “Gender and the Founding ‘Fathers’ of French Psychiatry.” Institutionalizing Gender: Madness, the Family, and Psychiatric Power in Nineteenth-Century France, Cornell University Press, 2020, pp. 19–42. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv136c5pw.5 
  • Huneman, Philippe. “Writing the Case—Pinel as Psychiatrist.” Republics of Letters: A Journal for the Study of Knowledge, Politics, and the Arts 3, no. 2 ( January 15, 2014): http://arcade.stanford.edu/rofl/writing-case -pinel-psychiatrist. 
  • KAVKA, JEROME. “PINEL’S CONCEPTION OF THE PSYCHOPATHIC STATE: An Historical Critique.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 23, no. 5, 1949, pp. 461–68. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44442272 
  • Kendler, Kenneth S. “Philippe Pinel and the foundations of modern psychiatric nosology.” Psychological medicine vol. 50,16 (2020): 2667-2672. doi:10.1017/S0033291720004183 
  • Lakritz, Kenneth, MD. “Michel Foucault’s Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason.” Psychiatric Times. Vol. 26, no. 6. June 4, 2009. https://www.psychiatrictimes.com/view/michel-foucaults-madness-and-civilization-history-insanity-age-reason 
  • Paradowski, Robert J., PhD. “Philippe Pinel.” EBSCO. 2024. https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/health-and-medicine/philippe-pinel 
  • Pearce, J.M.S. “The beginnings of humane psychiatry: Pinel and the Tukes.” Hektoen International. June 4, 2020. https://hekint.org/2020/06/04/the-beginnings-of-humane-psychiatry-pinel-and-the-tukes/ 
  • Pinel, Philippe. Tr. by Gordon Hickish, David Healy, Louis C. Charland. “MEDICO-PHILOSOPHICAL TREATISE ON MENTAL ALIENATION.” Wiley-Blackwell. 2008. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/9780470712238.fmatter 
  • Pinel, Philippe. “A Treatise on Insanity … “ Sheffield. W. Todd. 1806. https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_4snWNO1lETAC/page/n7/mode/2up 
  • Pinel, Philippe. “A Treatise on Insanity.” New York : Published under the auspices of the Library of the New York Academy of Medicine by Hafner Pub. Co. 1962. Accessed online: https://archive.org/details/treatiseoninsani0000pine/page/n1/mode/2up 
  • Weiner, D B. “Philippe Pinel's "Memoir on Madness" of December 11, 1794: a fundamental text of modern psychiatry.” The American journal of psychiatry. vol. 149,6 (1992): 725-32. doi:10.1176/ajp.149.6.725 
  • Weissmann, Gerald. “Citizen Pinel and the Madman at Bellevue.” The FASEB Journal. May 1, 2008. https://faseb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1096/fj.08-0501ufm 
  • WILLIAMS, ELIZABETH A. “Stomach and Psyche: Eating, Digestion, and Mental Illness in the Medicine of Philippe Pinel.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 84, no. 3, 2010, pp. 358–86. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44448968 
  • WOODS, EVELYN A., and ERIC T. CARLSON. “THE PSYCHIATRY OF PHILIPPE PINEL.” Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 35, no. 1, 1961, pp. 14–25. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44446761

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